Despair turns to hope for single mum on house hunting mission

Perth property price slump provides glimmer of hope for homebuyers In short: Home buyers are hopeful a drop in Perth property prices will help them break into the market. New data shows the city's median dwelling value has fallen to $942,018, but that is still 68 per cent higher than it was five years ago. What's next: A Perth realtor warns the optimism of those trying to buy a home may be premature, saying the figures do not represent the true state of the housing market. After years of searching for a home as Perth property prices continued to rise at an unprecedented rate, Vanessa Bray finally feels like she has a fighting chance of securing one. The single mum has been buoyed by new figures showing Australia is tracking towards its biggest housing market downturn in 40 years, with Perth's house prices dropping 5.7 per cent over the last three months. Data from property research group Cotality shows Perth's median dwelling price has fallen to $942,018 — a drop of nearly $100,000 since peaking at more than $1 million in April. Meanwhile, economists at the Commonwealth Bank today released an updated forecast predicting Perth house prices would plummet 18 per cent from that April peak, before prices begin to stabilise in the second half of 2027. Hope on the horizon For Ms Bray, the easing market spells hope of finding a home for her and her sons. "I can't even begin to describe the relief that I feel for myself and my kids that we could maybe have a home of our own," she said. "It's close. I feel like it will happen instead of the despair that I had that it was never going to happen." Ms Bray has been looking for a family home since she and her partner separated four years ago. She needs to find something in their school catchment while staying under the $850,000 cap needed to qualify for the state government's Help to Buy Scheme. Ms Bray said her experience of trying to buy a home had been '"devastating" and like being on a "rollercoaster". "[I've gone from] thinking, 'right, this could finally be it. I'm going to make it. I'm going to have long-term security for me and my kids' to the devastation of 'I've missed out again'," she said. "It was a really tough time." Too optimistic, too soon While the recent slump in price represents a glimmer of hope for those trying to break into the market, the softening represents a small dent in the meteoric rise in Perth's property prices, which have risen 93 per cent in a decade, including 68 per cent in the last five years. Perth realtor Kyle Peters warned the optimism of those trying to enter the market could be premature. Mr Peters said the recent figures were not a good representation of the true state of Australia's housing market. "It would be an interesting anomaly that a housing market would crash when we have a housing crisis and don't have enough houses for people to live in," Mr Peters said. "At the rate things were ramping up before, there needed to be some abatement, but certainly we [still] have a housing shortage." Buyers can be more selective REIWA president Rob Mandanici said even if prices did not continue to fall on the same trajectory, the slowing market still provided benefits for those entering the market. "They can take a little bit more time to make that purchasing decision and not feel that immense pressure to rush into a decision," he said. "The buyers themselves haven't disappeared, they've become more selective." Mr Mandanici said there was no doubt Australia was experiencing "a little bit of a market slowdown", but said the dip in prices did not amount to a crash. "We are seeing some prices across multiple Perth suburbs pull back, but a lot of those suburbs are coming off highs," he said. "We've got a lot of buyers sitting on the sidelines and I think today's interest rate decision will just give buyers the certainty that they want moving forward." On Tuesday the Reserve Bank increased interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, lifting the cash rate to 4.85 per cent, the highest it has been since 2008.